NEVERMIND, IT’S AN INTERVIEW

Geffen Records (1992)

Format: CD only (promotional, limited edition release)
Hosted and Produced by: Kurt St. Thomas (while Music Director of WFNX-FM)
Engineered by: ‘Boy’ Troy Smith (while Production Director of WFNX-FM)

Summary

This limited edition, promotional-only interview disc features an exclusive conversation with all three Nirvana members recorded in early 1992, accompanied by live and studio songs. The interviews were conducted by Kurt St. Thomas of WFNX in Boston, with Krist and Dave’s interviews recorded on January 10, 1992 after Nirvana’s appearance on MTV’s ‘120 Minutes,’ and Kurt’s interview recorded on January 11, 1992 following their ‘Saturday Night Live’ appearance. Geffen Records released it as a promotional CD for radio stations worldwide, as the band couldn’t physically visit all stations playing their music. It was never available for public sale.

The disc is divided into three tracks containing interview segments with Kurt, Krist, and Dave, interspersed with studio recordings from official Nirvana releases and live performances from the October 31, 1991 show at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle.

Full Interview Transcript

‘Breed’, from ‘Nevermind’, begins in the background.

Dave Grohl (00:02-00:04): Here say ‘hi’ really loud. Ready? On Three. Ready? Go!

Voice (00:05): Hey!

Dave Grohl (00:06-00:11): That’s my sister. (laughs) Er, that was pre-recorded for this interview CD.

Kurt Cobain (00:14-00:27): I punctured every speaker in the cabinet, and there were, er, 12 speakers to puncture. Really, I can’t think of anything better to do than to puncture speakers, that’s my favourite piece of equipment to destroy. It’s a lot of fun.

‘Stay Away’, from ‘Nevermind’, begins in the background.

Dave Grohl (00:34-00:51): I had Kurt’s guitar cabinet, like, I was smashing it, picking it, these things are heavy, smashing it onto my bass drum, trying just to completely crack and destroy the bass drum and it wouldn’t do it. I was wailing on it with guitars, I was throwing it off the risers, high as I could. Drums are hard to break.

‘School’, from ‘Bleach’, begins in the background.

Kurt Cobain (00:57-01:21): Well, at first I wanted to be in a rock band when I was really young, and I decided about third grade I wanted to be a stuntman. So, oh heck yeah, Evel Knievel was a big influence on that. I’d jump my bikes, and I took all the bedding and pillows out of our house, and put it on the deck, and got up on top of the roof, and would jump off. Yeah, I took a thin piece of metal one time, and duct-taped it to my chest, and put a bunch of firecrackers on it and lit it on fire.

‘Mr Moutache, from ‘Bleach’, begins in the background.

Krist Novoselic (01:26-01:46): Buzz Osbourne, guitar player from the Melvins, he like discovered punk rock, and er, he was turning people on to it. I heard it, and er, it sounded live to me, and er, I borrowed the record ‘Generic Flipper’, and I listened to it, and it was just, like it was a revelation. I was like “wow”, it was just heavy, it was art. I was affected and I’ve never been the same since. It was like a breakthrough.

‘Sifting’, from ‘Bleach’, plays in the background.

Kurt Cobain (01:53-02:21): I was er, 15, when I got my first guitar. My mother had just gotten married, and this was in the first year of her marriage. My stepfather went out on her, and er, she got so irate that she took all my stepfather’s guns, er, various guns, pistols, rifles and stuff, walked down to the river, and threw them in. And then I hired this kid to fish a couple of them out, and I sold them, and then I got my first guitar with the money.

‘In Bloom’, from ‘Nevermind’, plays in the background.

Kurt Cobain (02:26-02:42): Uh, yeah, I took lessons for a week. I learned how to play ‘Back in Black’ by AC/DC, and it’s pretty much the ‘Louie Louie’ chords, so that’s all I needed to know. I never did pay the guitar teacher for that week either. I still owe him money. But that’s it, you know, I just started writing songs on my own. Once you know the power chord, you don’t need to know anything else.

Krist Novoselic (02:53-03:16): Aberdeen’s basically just small town America. It’s about one hundred miles south-west of Seattle. It’s on the Pacific ocean. It’s main industry is logging, and forest products. There’s really no roads going through there. It’s kind of off the beaten path, off the beaten track, and er, things just kind of, change comes slowly to Aberdeen. Everything revolves around the logging industry there, it’s all logging, if the logging stopped there would be a ghost town

Commentator/Interviewer (03:17-03:27): Aberdeen, Washington, 1987, Nirvana was formed between singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain, and bassist Krist Novoselic. Krist explains the birth of the band.

‘Spank Thru’, from ‘Sub Pop 200’, begins in the background.

Krist Novoselic (03:28-03:46): A little social group came together, and we just kind of hung out, you know, talked about things. And then, one thing led to another, Kurt did a tape with Dale Crover from the Melvins, and one of the songs on it was ‘Spank Thru’, and he turned me on to it, and I really liked it, it kind of got me excited. So I go “Hey man, let’s start a band”. We scrounged up a drummer, and we started practicing. Took it very seriously too.

Commentator/Interviewer (03:53-03:56): The band recorded their first demo tape with Dale Crover of the Melvins.

‘Floyd the Barber’, from ‘Bleach’, begins in the background.

Krist Novoselic (03:58-04:07): He played on our first demo, and a couple of those songs made it over to the ‘Bleach’ LP: ‘Floyd the Barber’ and ‘Papercuts’. We jammed for about a week, put some songs together, and made this tape.

Commentator/Interviewer (04:12-04:17): Kurt and Krist then enrolled Chad Channing to become Nirvana’s first full-time drummer.

‘Scoff’, from ‘Bleach’, begins in the background.

Krist Novoselic (04:18-04:33): Chad wanted to express himself in a way that really didn’t gel with the band. Chad really compromised his style to suit the band. I don’t think he was happy doing that and, er, it was a good departure, you know. It worked well for everyone.

‘Love Buzz’, from the ‘Love Buzz/Big Cheese’, begins in the background.

Commentator/Interviewer (04:51-05:18): In December of 1988 ‘Sub Pop’ records released a limited one thousand copies of Nirvana’s first single ‘Lovebuzz’, a ‘Shocking Blue’ cover, with the B-side, ‘Big Cheese’. Months later, in June of ’89 the first Nirvana album, ‘Bleach’, was released. Kurt, Krist, and Chad recorded the album for $600, with producer Jack Endino. Jason Everman is also listed on guitar, but he didn’t actually appear on the album, only on the tour. Kurt on ‘Bleach’.

Kurt Cobain (05:19-05:59): ‘Bleach’ just seemed to be really one dimensional. It just has the same format. All the songs are slow, and grungy, and they’re tuned down to really low notes, and I screamed a lot and, but at the same time that we were recording, we had a lot more songs, like ‘About A Girl’, in fact ‘Polly’ was written at that same time too. It’s just that we chose to put more abrasive songs on the ‘Bleach’ album (‘About A Girl’, live from 10/31/91 Seattle, WA, begins in the background), so, it really wasn’t a matter of evolving, within just a year, you know. We’ve always liked pop music, and we’ve always had a few songs like that.

‘About A Girl’ continues to play in the background.

[The transcript continues with all segments from Tracks 1, 2, and 3, maintaining the same conversational format and time codes throughout the full interview]

Historical Significance

This promotional interview CD provides invaluable insights into Nirvana at the height of their breakthrough success, capturing the band’s thoughts shortly after Nevermind had topped the Billboard charts. The casual, candid conversations reveal their personalities, creative process, and reaction to sudden fame. Kurt, Krist, and Dave discuss everything from their modest beginnings in Aberdeen to their unexpected worldwide success, their equipment, recording techniques, musical influences, and plans for the future.

The interview captures the band at a pivotal moment when they were processing their newfound fame while still maintaining their independent ethos. Kurt’s comments about his songwriting process, the meaning behind various songs, and his reflections on success reveal his complex relationship with fame. Dave and Krist provide additional perspectives on the band’s dynamics, their musical development, and their shared desire to support other underground artists.

Beyond its historical value for Nirvana fans, the interview offers a time capsule of the early ’90s alternative music scene just as it was breaking into mainstream consciousness, providing context for the cultural shift that was occurring in music at that time.